Weekend Movie Forecast: The Informant! Vs. Jennifer's Body

Roger Ebert has no patience for The Burning Plain, the semi-star-studded (Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, John Corbett) debut feature from Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. The Chicago film critic grouses, "The Burning Plain involves events perhaps 20 years and 1,000 miles apart, with many of the same characters. Told chronologically, it might have accumulated considerable power. Told as a labyrinthine tangle of intercut timelines and locations, it is a frustrating exercise in self-indulgence."